Crossing the Atlantic in a Reed Boat

To my knowledge, the idea was first tested and publicized by Norwegian scientist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (see his book, Kon-Tiki). The theory - that ancient peoples could have traveled by boat back-and-forth from Africa to South America for trade and possibly migration.


A German scientist is about to make the latest attempt at such a crossing. Read about it from The Jersey Journal.

Ancient Anchor Discovered

See press release below...

The world's oldest wooden anchor was discovered during excavations in the Turkish port city of Urla, the ancient site of Liman Tepe -- the Greek 1st Millennium BCE colony of Klazomenai, by researchers from the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa. The anchor, from the end of the 7th century BC, was found near a submerged construction, imbedded approximately.1.5 meters underground.

Canadian Archaeologists Excavate Ancient Nubia (Sudan)

The ancient Nubians may very well have been as wealthy or wealthier (and almost as powerful) as their Nile neighbors to the north. However, the civilization of the Nubians is still somewhat of a mystery. We have not deciphered their script yet, and until that happens the mystery will grow as archaeologists continue to uncover the remnants of this "other" great Nile civilization.

Check out this article about a Canadian archeologist's work in Sudan on excavating and discovering the secrets of the Kingdom of Kush.

Human Sacrifice in Hunter/Gatherer Europe?

Nothing makes teaching history to adolescents easier than the concept of human sacrifice. The Mayans and Aztecs practically teach themselves, their art showing pulsating hearts being ripped from chests, etc.

Below is a press release about some ongoing research relating to the subject...

A paper from the June issue of Current Anthropology explores ancient multiple graves and raises the possibility that hunter gatherers in what is now Europe may have practiced ritual human sacrifice. This practice – well-known in large, stratified societies – supports data emerging from different lines of research that the level of social complexity reached in the distant past by groups of hunter gatherers was well beyond that of many more recent small bands of modern foragers.

Due to their number, state of preservation, richness, and variety of associated grave goods, burials from the Upper Paleolithic (26,000-8,000 BC) represent an important source of information on ideological beliefs that may have influenced funerary behavior. In an analysis of the European record, Vincenzo Formicola (University of Pisa, Italy) points to a high frequency of multiple burials, commonly attributed to simultaneous death due to natural disaster or disease.

However, a look at grave composition reveals that some of the multiple burials may have been selective. Not only do the skeletons in these graves vary by sex and age, but the most spectacular sites also include a severely deformed individual with a pathological condition that would have been apparent since birth, for example, dwarfism or congenital bowing of the bones.

These multiple graves are also richly ornamented and in choice locales. For example, the remains of an adolescent dwarf in Romito Cave (Calabria, Italy) lie next to a female skeleton under an elaborate engraving of a bull. In the Sunghir double burial (Russia), the skeletons of a pre-teen boy and girl are surrounded by ivory objects including about 5,000 beads, each of which may have taken an hour to make.

“These findings point to the possibility that human sacrifices were part of the ritual activity of these populations and provide clues on the complexity and symbolism pervading Upper Paleolithic societies as well as on the perception of “diversity” and its links to magical-religious beliefs,” Formicola writes. “These individuals may have been feared, hated, or revered . . . we do not know whether this adolescent received special burial treatment in spite of being a dwarf or precisely because he was a dwarf.”

Source: University of Chicago Press

Rangers test Anasazi signaling theory in New Mexico

Here is an interesting article about the feasibility of long-distance visual signaling between Anasazi communities in the Four Corners region of the southwest.

I have been to this part of the country, and visibility is incredible on a clear day.

Mapping Early Migration of Stomach Ulcer Bacteria

If you're suffering from a stomach ulcer, you can take comfort in the fact that humans have suffered for thousands of years from the affliction...:)

An international team of scientists has discovered that the ubiquitous bacteria that cause most painful stomach ulcers have been present in the human digestive system since modern man migrated from Africa over 60,000 years ago. The research, published online today (7 February) by the journal Nature, not only furthers our understanding of a disease causing bacteria but also offers a new way to study the migration and diversification of early humans.

The international research collaboration was led by scientists from the University of Cambridge, the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, and the Hanover Medical School. The researchers compared DNA sequence patterns of humans and the Helicobacter pylori bacteria now known to cause most stomach ulcers. They found that the genetic differences between human populations that arose as they dispersed from Eastern Africa over thousands of years are mirrored in H. pylori.

Human DNA analysis has shown that along the major land routes out of Africa human populations become genetically isolated – the further from Eastern Africa a population is the more different genetically it is compared to other human populations. Other research has shown gradual differences in European populations, presumed to be the result of Neolithic farmers moving northwards. The international H. pylori research team found almost exactly the same genetic distribution patterns in their results.

The scientists combined their genetic analysis with a computer simulation that modelled the spread of the bacteria across the globe. This showed that it migrated from Eastern Africa at almost exactly the same time as early humans, approximately 60,000 years ago.

Source: BBSRC

Male / Female Roles as an Advantage for Humans over Neanderthals

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the December 2006 issue of Current Anthropology about how male/female labor roles gave humans a competitive edge over the Neanderthals…

“The competitive advantage enjoyed by modern humans came not just from new weapons and devices but from the ways in which their economic lives were organized around the advantages of cooperation and complementary subsistence roles for men, women, and children,” write Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner (University of Arizona).

Kuhn and Stiner note that the rich archaeological record for Neanderthal diets provides little direct evidence for a reliance on subsistence foods, such as milling stones to grind nuts and seeds. Instead, Neanderthals depended on large game, a high-stakes resource, to fuel their massive body mass and high caloric intake. This lack of food diversity and the presence of healed fractures on Neanderthal skeletons—attesting to a rough-and-tumble lifestyle—suggest that female and juvenile Neanderthals participated actively in the hunt by serving as game drivers, beating bushes or cutting off escape routes.

The Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal record also lacks the artifacts commonly used to make weather-resistant clothing or artificial shelters, such as bone needles. Thus, it was the emergence of “female” roles – subsistence and functional craft – that allowed H. sapiens in ecologically diverse tropical and sub-tropical regions to take advantage of other foods and live at higher population densities.

“Earlier hominins pursued more narrowly focused economies, with women’s activities more closely aligned with those of men with respect to schedule and ranging patterns,” write the authors. “It is impossible to argue that [Neanderthal] females and juveniles were fulfilling the same roles—or even an equally diverse suite of economic roles—as females and juveniles in recent hunter-gatherer groups,” they add.

While some degree of niche specialization between adult male and females is documented for many large-mammal species, recent humans are remarkable for cooperative economies that combine pervasive sharing and complementary roles for individuals of different ages and sexes.

Source: University of Chicago

Egyptians used concrete?

A professor from Drexel University claims that the Egyptians used a concrete-like material made from limestone to make some of the blocks forming Great Pyramids of Giza.

Ancient Greeks even smarter than we thought?

From a press release…Please see link at the bottom of the article…

An international team has unravelled the secrets of a 2,000-year-old computer which could transform the way we think about the ancient world.

Radiologists Present ‘King Tut’ Findings

CHICAGO — Egyptian radiologists who performed the first-ever computed tomography (CT) evaluation of King Tutankhamun’s mummy believe they have solved the mystery of how the ancient pharaoh died. The CT images and results of their study were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Library of Congress and National Library of Egypt Cooperate to Digitize History

Last Wednesday, a new digititization center opened at the National Library in Cairo. The equipment, provided by the Library of Congress, will be used to make some of the Egyptian archives available on the internet.

The LOC is also working with the National Library to create a English and Arabic website “documenting the history of science in the Islamic world from A.D. 800 to 1600, as portrayed in the Arabic manuscripts from the collections of the two institutions.”

I’ll be very interested to explore the new website when it launches. In addition to many achievements of their own, the Arabs helped expand upon and keep much of the knowledge of the Greeks and Romans alive while Europe was in the depths of the Dark Ages.

For more information on these and other joint ventures between the LOC and Egypt’s National Library and Archives, check out this press release.

‘Poop’ as Historical Evidence

A new children’s book by Jacob Berkowitz examines the use of the not-so-tidy side of human and animal existence as historical and archaeological evidence.

The book, Jurassic Poop, is the “first comprehensive book on coprolites.” Coprolites are fossilized feces that provide better ancient DNA than bones or teeth, the author said in a press release (see link below).

Among other things, the book looks at fecal evidence dealing with the Mayflower.

The official Mayflower record says that the only animals on board were two dogs. But in the mid-1990s an archaeological excavation of a 17th century Boston privy revealed another story. The Mayflower was infested with at least 20 types of Old World beetles, stow-aways who quickly called America home — and do to this day.

Jurassic Poop also reveals that more than 1000 human coprolites have been collected from Hinds Cave in the Chihuahuan desert in southwest Texas, making the site the largest human coprolite cache ever found.

The fossilized specimens were deposited by ancient Americans over the course of about 8000 years. The book notes that these human remains are about 95-per cent fibre. That’s about 15 times the amount of fibre the average American eats today. Hendrik Poinar is now collaborating with Vaughn Bryant of Texas A&M University to extract genetic information from the Hinds Cave coprolites.

View the entire press release here or visit Berkowitz’s website here.

APA: Tests Help Recall

In teacher’s training, I often had the impression that testing was bad. My personal philosophy is that students are going to be tested at every level, and I had better give them experience in taking tests and help them develop testing strategies. I typically use traditional testing methods as well as alternate assessments, performance assessments, etc. to determine whether or not my students are learning.

The APA and Washington University at St. Louis did a study on testing and found that it helps students recall information — even information that’s not on the test. Here is an excerpt from the press release.

WASHINGTON, DC—Remember those kids who wanted to study only what was on the test? They may have cheated themselves. New research reveals that the simple act of taking a test helps you remember everything you learned, even if it isn’t tested. In three experiments, psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis determined that testing enhanced long-term recall for material that was not tested initially. Untested students recalled significantly less of what they’d studied – even after having extra time to go over the material.

This confirmation of how mid-term or final-exam type tests foster learning is reported in the November issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Tests are more than efficient scoring tools. The authors call them a “powerful memory enhancer.” Although psychologists knew that testing strengthened the subsequent recall of the tested learned material, it hadn’t been clear whether typical classroom tests (as distinguished from high-stakes standardized tests) also strengthened recall of the material not put on the test.

You can view the press release from the APA here and the full study here.

Researchers Investigate Pompeii’s Fading Paint

Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the Roman city of Pompeii on August 24, AD 79.

Wall paintings in Pompeii often contained a bright crimson pigment called cinnabar (mercury sulfide). Since the wall paintings were removed from their volcanic ash sealed tomb, the cinnabar has begun to turn black.

Research is ongoing to determine the causes for the degradation of cinnabar, and the results will help in the effort to preserve similar works of Roman art in museums and ruins.

Some factors believed to contribute to the darkening cinnabar are atmospheric contamination, exposure to sunlight and rain, and possibly from a preservative applied to the paintings by the original artists called “punic wax.”

For more details on this research, read the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

Amazon River Once Flowed Backwards

Sediment along the Amazon River indicate that the river once flowed from ancient highlands on the eastern coast of South America to the west. This contrasts the current flow of the Amazon from its headwaters in the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic ocean to the east.

The discovery was made by a graduate student of geology, Russell Mapes, and his advisor, Dr. Drew Coleman, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

By analyzing the age of sediment along the Amazon Basin, the two researchers confirmed previous research indicating reverse flow along portions of the river but also found that at one time, the Amazon’s reverse flow was actually continent-wide.

If the Amazon had continuously flowed eastward, as it does now, Mapes and Coleman would have found much younger mineral grains in the sediments from the Andes.

“We didn’t see any,” Mapes said. “All along the basin, the ages of the mineral grains all pointed to very specific locations in central and eastern South America.

Mapes explains that these sediments of eastern origin were washed down from a highland area that formed in the Cretaceous Period, between 65 million and 145 million years ago, when the South American and African tectonic plates separated and passed each other. That highland tilted the river’s flow westward, sending sediment as old as 2 billion years toward the center of the continent.

A relatively low ridge, called the Purus Arch, which still exists, rose in the middle of the continent, running north and south, dividing the Amazon’s flow - eastward toward the Atlantic and westward toward the Andes.

Toward the end of the Cretaceous, the Andes started growing, which sent the river back toward the Purus Arch. Eventually, sediment from the mountains, which contained mineral grains younger than 500 million years old, filled in the basin between the mountains and the arch, the river breeched it and started its current flow.

“It was a surprise, just because I didn’t have any idea what to expect,” Mapes said. “I didn’t know it would work out so perfectly.”

The finding, Mapes said, helps illustrate that “the surface of the earth is very transient. Although the Amazon seems permanent and unchanging it has actually gone through three different stages of drainage since the mid-Cretaceous, a short period of time geologically speaking.”

Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill